It's All Communication

new website up...

2010-06-25T14:22:00.001-07:00

Hello all,

check out my new website at www.paulendresjr.com

the pic is from review board, may 4th

St Abigail's Day

2010-04-04T17:58:00.000-07:00

Hello again. "St. Abigail's Day" is the latest piece of the series, which is titled "The Burden". It is 24" x 72", a real joy to work on. I have 1 more piece to add to the series, and then will write at length about the whole, about a month or so.... Thanks for looking, enjoy!

-paul

You Can Either Surf, Or You Can Fight.

2010-02-10T11:02:00.000-08:00

You Can Either Surf, Or You Can Fight is my first painting of 2010.

It is 72in. X 44in, making it the largest painting in the series yet.

As with the last paintings ive put on the site, i'll refrain from saying

too much about the content until the series is completed.

With that said, You Can Either Surf, Or You Can Fight is the most

accurate visual representation of my view of "history" i've painted yet, and for that

i'm happy, a conglomeration of polarities mashed violently together.

Also, it is the most dynamic and chaotic, piece in the series too,

making it my "cup of tea"but i'm sure some will find the amount

of information....too much , but then again, it's the too much stuff

that's sorta the point .

Big thanks go out to the growing cast for their acting,

and thanks for looking, enjoy!!

Review Board- (12/16/09)

2010-01-10T17:17:00.000-08:00

Here's a couple pics from December, the four paintings I did this semester in my studio, and how they were displayed at my review board. i'm very excited about this next semester and how the paintings will add to the narrative, as well as obscure it further. happy new year!

Home

2009-12-17T10:00:00.000-08:00

The last painting of the semester, titled, "Home", features Abigail Daedalus wrapped in caution tape, as she returns home. I imagine that this painting and the earlier "I read the news today, oh boy", happen at the same exact time. The piece is 24" x 36" so a little smaller than the last pieces, maybe a little more reserved. Slowly but surely the narrative is growing.

This piece received a great reception at my end of the semester review board for the normality of the environment in contrast to the bizarre outfit Abigail wears.

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

2009-12-02T15:59:00.000-08:00

"Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" The painting is 6 feet long, 3 feet tall, completed this week. Personally, it is with this painting that I have experienced my biggest "turn around", in that I really wasn't happy with it for a long time and stopped working on it for about a month and a half, and then suddenly if made sense again, and it turned into a painting I really love. I was really far outside my comfort zone (if one exists) in a healthy and productive way .

Narratively, this is a painting of Everett Whipple as he is waiting out the epidemic on the roof. Check out the statement on the left for more info, as this painting certainly pertains to it.

Finally, This painting wouldn't exist if it weren't for fellow artist Andrew Ross, whose collaboration is always rewarding, so a big thanks to him.

Enjoy the piece, check back soon!

Mr. and Mrs. Daedalus

2009-11-06T15:37:00.000-08:00

Hello all, here is the latest painting for your viewing pleasure, titled "Mr. and Mrs. Daedalus" (until further notice). I spent the better part of today trying to get a decent picture of it, so you'll have to forgive me when I say, "it really is better in person". With that said,

I am very pleased with how the piece pulled itself together. I've decided to start posting a working (and I stress working) artist statement to the left hand margin of the site. The statement will be adjusted and evolve as the work changes and grows. As a reference point, the statement applies to the paintings I Read the News Today, Oh Boy, and Mr. and Mrs. Daedalus, though rest assured, I've got plenty of irons in the fire, mwhahahah (fiendish laugh). Bad jokes aside, that brings me to the final thing, if you are looking at this painting and think you'd want to participate in future work let me know! Especially over winter break. So, without further adieu, here is the statement, and enjoy the painting!

My current work is a conflation and conglomeration of history, art history, memory, pop culture, and the self. It is the burden of history materialized and in a rambling non-chronological narrative. Referencing 18th and 19th century portraiture, American comics and film of the 1960's, and cheap horror movies of today, the work seeks the ambiguous common ground between polarities. In the garbage heap of history everything is traceably interconnected and in a state of constant convergence and transformation. All distinction is lost, crucial and absurd, past and present, self and whole, even living and dead.

There is also, of course, a subtext of a 21st century zombie epidemic. This is a play on an extremely literal take on history as a response to the current emphasis on “historicizing” without understanding history. If history is a piling up of historical debris, then in this literal interpretation the pile would occupy a physical space. Thus, there is simply no space to put our dead. Each generation piles up to infect and contaminate the next. The consumer society adopts it’s mantel literally as well, a horde of insatiable zombies.

The paintings, done in a pseudo-retrospect looking back to these disastrous events, tragically celebrate the heroes and stories of the time, but are unsure as to what end they hope to achieve.

new frarme

2009-10-08T04:33:00.000-07:00

hello out there, i switched the frame to the piece and it seems to be quite a change, thus, a new post. its brighter and kinda more hokey

I Read the News Today, Oh Boy

2009-10-02T09:52:00.000-07:00

I would like to refrain from saying too much about the content of this work until the narrative is further fleshed about by more pieces, though, i think it is entirely possible to understand at least some of the story with the information provided. what i will say though, is that this new painting is the first (though not chronologically first) of a longer series that deals with the themes i've been examining for the past few years, history, memory, and identity, and the overwhelming and converging accumulation.

The title is I Read the News Today, Oh Boy, but this is subject to change when the other paintings join it.

I'm very happy with the piece, hope you enjoy too!

first wave

2009-09-24T17:40:00.000-07:00

infection prevention suit version 1

back at the SMFA

2009-09-09T04:17:00.000-07:00

hello there, the last month or so has been something of a jumble of taking photos for source material for zombie paintings, studying the last supper and the death of marat, finishing paperwork for school, working like a fiend, and finally moving (mostly ) to boston.

Here is a picture of the new studio on the second floor, i'm really moving up in the world, literally (sorry, couldn't resist) yesterday I wrote a sort of state of the union for my art and brain. The workload this semester will be intense, but i have a feeling things will, sync up? This graduate program sounds as though it is just the right experience i need at this point in time and life. it will be good for me.

see you around internet gods

zombie progress 7

2009-08-04T17:51:00.001-07:00

the newspaper and shelf ......

spring review board

2009-05-01T04:37:00.000-07:00

i had my spring review board 2 days ago, it went very well and was very helpful in terms of putting my thoughts in order and getting advice on my work. this is how i set up my studio for the review, it looks amazingly clean compared to what it was.

now the summer season is here, which means sundae school and painting. the next paintings will continue with full figures interacting with the conglomerations, as in OMG!111 , but may be in a real world context,...... and just may involve zombies.... ha!

so, off to the cape it is to set up shop somewhere and get to it. see you on the other side.

OMG!111

2009-04-28T15:49:00.000-07:00

OMG!111, the last painting of the semester. its 54" x 54". it is, for me, primarily a painting of collapsing polarities and how they relate to history and identity. everything in history is somehow connected to everything else, therefore even opposites have aspects in common, or perhaps are even one in the same.

it is a series of beginnings and ends and opposites collapsing.

(finally) moving on to full figures, Keegan Ruby acts as a god figure at the moment of creation as well as revelation, she is both creating the world and destroying it.

"to infinity and beyond" -the most existential thing a toy has ever said

2009-04-08T04:54:00.000-07:00

no i haven't forgot about you! here is a collection of progress pics from the Father, Son, and the American Spirit..... painting. I did take pictures after every session, but reduced it to this many pictures. top to bottom, left to right. gotcha. the biggest changes are the mouth on the left is redone about halfway through, and near the very end the indian head slot machine turns into a statue of liberty slot machine.

anyways, the new/last painting in the post bacc program is underway, it has to do with the moment of creation and Genesis and Revelation.....weighty right?? jeeez no its not that bad. trying to get more "old mastery" type history painting with full figures receding into the background (ala caravaggio), but keeping it as confusing, absurd, tragic, and stimulant full as the 21st century. the other tricky thing is the new painting is a 54" square.....yeah i've forgotten how strange a shape a square is. though, the first day i was painting it i had an uncanny sense of deja vu of the same feeling i had when i first started painting the V series in fall of 2007. then i didn't know i know or care care i couldn't really paint, it was like being a child. when i started the new square painting i got that feeling again, like i was 5 years old drawing ninja turtles on the kitchen table, it was a nice moment.

there are 2 and a half weeks left of painting here this year, then i'll be part of the MFA program here in september. my plan is to do at least 1 large painting a month over may, june, july and august, that is an extension of the investigation i am on right now about history, memory and identity, and then smaller studies on the side. so yeah, come back and see the new painting on april 29th!

The father, son, and the American Spirit or The Secret Failure of the Civil War

2009-03-23T04:19:00.000-07:00

"The Father, Son, and the American Spirit or The Secret Failure of the Civil War". yes thats the whole name. 7 feet long, 3 feet tall, started this back in january and had it on my mind for a long time. the production rate of the paintings has slowed significantly, last semester i had 10 paintings in the review board, this year i'm hoping to have 4 (brotherly love, bath time, the secret failure, and 1 more).

This is a slight departure from the previous paintings in 2 main ways. the first is obvious, its horizontal. the second is that i wasn't thinking of a particular historical event to spark the painting.

Major themes here are memory, history, and national/self identity once again, but also confusion, fear, excess, helplessness and polarities that are the same thing. its about outward violence and violence against our own. consuming and being consumed. my family and the nation. The painting is successful in communicating what i want to talk about, but heres a little bit of what i was thinking...

I really wanted to place the painting in a greater art historical, and historical context, which picasso and gang help with. guernica is a major influence here. Every person on a dollar bill now is in the painting, kind of a "re up" of the "redux XX" paintings (below) which were not really successful. Also, i had to re-address what my problem with american currency was. Washington rejected any payment when he lead the army, and how did we "repay" him? we put him ON THE DOLLAR? it's as if we just didn't get it, like we missed the point.

So 200 years later we are equating man with currency. to put a monetary value on a person is a form of slavery. my problem with american currency is that it perpetuates the enslavement of americans, including some of those who were the best of us (washington, lincoln). We believe america vanquished slavery in the civil war, though we enslave our forefathers, and they enslave us. its a sort of cannibalism, consumerism, and just plain confusion.

now factor this this into today, where it seem you cant buy a cup of coffee without having a panic attack about the economy in crisis, the falling stock market, and corporate bonuses. I know they're linked, but for God's sake the economy and the nation are not the same thing! talk about slavery.

so yeah, i was thinking something like this, which is not to dispel the greater notions of war, greed, fear, the modern world etc etc

any questions let me know or if you want to see it in person.

Detail 1. The flag and money color confusion and the All Seeing iPod

Detail 2. My mom holding a sign that says, "what do you mean you're going to art school?!"

Detail 3. My dad next to the threat level love tester, and snapshots from Picasso's Guernica.

Detail 4. The Statue of liberty slot machine, inspired from indian slot machines, look em up. She's holding a paint brush= the creation as creator

collage

2009-03-16T17:09:00.000-07:00

collage in the studio

the dollar is coming!

2009-03-16T16:47:00.000-07:00

its been a little while, but is the internet effected by time? i dont know, anyways, the latest painting is a big one, thus its taking a little extra time. my production has slowed significantly since 1 year ago, now doing about 1 painting per month, but considering they are bigger, more detailed, and just better paintings, i'm ok with it,..... trying to adjust. so until then here are a few pics, the first two are old family pictures.

check out the guy on the far left, looks just like my dad and my uncle will, but taken in the late 19th century. george endres (i need to double check the back for the name to be sure.)
the third is a photo taken of me while working on the latest painting by another SMFA student (connie sawyer) who is doing portraits of the post bacc program.

the last one is my brother mike in front of "tea party" in the SMFA student annual exhibit.

Bath Time

2009-02-18T10:01:00.000-08:00

alrighty, so here is the latest painting, "Bath Time". I'm sorta in the middle of evolving beliefs of history, memory and identity, so i might take back what i say here, but those are the big themes at work here. to put this painting into a historical box, it is about the sinking of the Lusitania, an event that propelled the US into WWI, (with the help of an ingenious british propaganda campaign, dare i say, noble propaganda? no lets not get into that) . this event is converging with the creation of the atomic bomb, my nephew griffins bath time, washington crossing the delaware, the destruction of the essex (aka moby dick), and my sister melissa and husband dan. a series of escalating events.......

To answer some of the questions i've had thus far on this and other pieces, yes, i intend to make historical, cultural, and person references in the subjects i paint and how they are put together in the painting. i am currently wrestling to justify in my own mind how history can exist as a non-sequential entity(which i believe it does) if the "cause and effect" relationship exists? I think the answer lies in how memory works. Each painting is becoming increasingly theatrical and more about memory then history. I think history is like our minds, in that it can jump from own thought or time to a completely different and foreign thought. Some of these seem completely irrelevant (ie. dunking donuts box) but they must have some connection if we allow our thoughts to jump to it,.....right? in any event, we mix and match our own personal history with national history, maybe i think of bath as a kid, and then i think of the lusitania sinking, then i think of washington crossing the delaware, = non sequential history existing in the memory = reality is a shared invention . is this thing on?

the first detail here has washington and colleen and myself

the second detail is oppenheimer, father of the atomic bomb

Brotherly Love

2009-01-05T18:02:00.000-08:00

This painting is about the start of the american civil war as a sibling rivalry or dispute blown way out of proportion. like Cain and Able (which is what the painting is there on the right by titian) my brother pete(bottom right) and i are beginning to split, my head pulling away and beginning to pull the string taught with me, as all the crap above begins to tip over. there's a lot going on here and its real ambiguous in terms of what the viewer should walk away with, but thats the point. this is not war yet, its disagreement that leads to war. i see the huge mouth full of talking heads as a personification of war; a beast we create that bares our likeness, that can tip the world over and devour indiscriminately. at least we have our lucky charms!

details of tea party

2008-12-19T12:44:00.000-08:00

2008-12-19T12:43:00.000-08:00

2008-12-19T12:42:00.000-08:00

Review Board pictures

2008-12-09T15:16:00.000-08:00

tea party

2008-12-09T14:53:00.000-08:00

heres the latest titled Tea Party. the pictures got a lot of glare, but i'll post a better one soon. I had my review board today (bring all work and discuss) and this was the most talked about. It was pretty much in full agreement that this piece is getting to where i want to be. in some strange ways i'm remembering things i love, but improving them. for example, the messy oil/gold splatters and flicks of paint and the giant head, remember last spring? giant heads and messy paint? also, the minutia from "little big horn" is back, but more specific. It is a return to new england, (as oppose to the last 3 are the south) the history i grew up around, have more of a connection to, and an affinity for.

It felt almost more about "memory" than "history". the paintings are becoming increasingly personal, meshing my own family in the grand scheme of history,(brother-mike top left, dad on top right) me still searching for identity. it becomes even more ludicrous and yet more serious, ridiculous and tragic. this is what history is, the crap mixed with the crucial. this painting is a critique of american history, and it is a love letter to american history.

to oversimplify,.....no you know what? lets just leave it at that, lets not oversimplify this one. look for the specifics, enjoy, see you soon with a new painting.

washington vs The Squid redux

2008-12-09T14:49:00.000-08:00

i have also redone the squid in this painting, and made some darks darker on the figures, in hindsight, you can really see how this piece was is a crucial transitional piece between the XX series and the work i'm doing now

wasington redux

2008-12-09T14:41:00.000-08:00

so i've reworked the XX series and i've posted them here with the original "finished" versions of themselves. I'm kinda over these, but i needed to at least try to bring them up a little closer in quality to my current work. darks darker, lights lighter. fixed some anatomy issues, tried to make them a little more realistic and looking like the actual people, figuring if the conceptual side of these are somewhat lost in the chaos, at least i can salvage some aestheticism.

jackson redux

2008-12-09T14:29:00.000-08:00

hamilton redux

2008-12-09T14:26:00.000-08:00

grant redux

2008-12-09T14:22:00.000-08:00

ben franklin redux

2008-12-09T14:21:00.000-08:00

remarble hero Meat! step by step

2008-11-30T14:55:00.000-08:00

for those who are interested, here is the step by step for remarble hero meat! though, this time around i wasnt as good about taking pictures after each session, so there are some jumps, anywho, enjoy!

1st totem series

2008-11-26T04:07:00.000-08:00

here is the 1st totem series, custers last stand, lincolns assassination, and the alamo are the events left to right, but it is also all many many different events places and people involved, because history does not contain itself, it overlaps, they all have to do with 19th century american history events that involve slaughter, nationalism/patriotism, memory and history manipulation, and how these relate to me in the 21st century, another search for identity i suppose. They're about how everything that has happened is still "happening" but cause and effect, like history is some ever changing creature, and i managed to paint what it looked like for a second. HEY i see what youre doing internet!.....i'm catching myself here, i dont want to say too much, enjoy!!!!

Remarble Hero Meat!

2008-11-26T03:54:00.000-08:00

Alrighty, heres the third totem, its about The alamo and it's titled Remarble Hero Meat! The alamo is a strange strange event, and i dont think anyone will ever know what actually happened there. I was thinking of the phrase "remember the alamo!" and thought, "what AM i suppose to remember about the alamo?" so basically this painting is me sorting out all the crap, trying to find something valuable to remember,,, trying anyways

So from bottom left, moving right, we have batman, john wayne, george W, and lyndon johnson. some of the things i was thinking was "big fish eat the little one" (optimistic-radiohead) as it relates to social and political movements, say, sieging a fort, or annexing a country. i was imagining me trying to separate fact and fiction, pull them apart, but i'm ultimately unable to.

and third, that everything is for sale, whether it be 99 cent tacos or our national heritage.

This painting is doing many new things i'm i'm trying to get better at, touching the edges of the painting and still have the totem floating, painting increasingly smaller figures amid chaos, relating a sense of movement, and give the primary portraits more depth and a 3d feel, while retaining a illustrative/graphic style of painting. well thanks for taking a looksy, onto the next ones!

2008-11-26T03:52:00.000-08:00

detail from Remarble Hero Meat! colleen saying, "really paul?! dont buy anything from confederate president jefferson davis!"

the alamo is coming!

2008-11-16T06:26:00.000-08:00

check this out Otto Becker's lithograph Custer's Last Fight and Robert Onderdonk's Fall of the Alamo (1903). both of these images became almost authoritative, and Look at how custer's pose has been appropriated for david crockett. Isolated white man in buckskin fighting arms above head,weapon in hand, desperate. fiction can create reality.

Assassinationalism step by step

2008-11-05T19:05:00.000-08:00

I was pretty good about taking a picture on my phone after every session of this painting. I did miss a couple, and the picture quality isn't that good, but it gets the idea across, and the progression is pretty interesting. this is actually an earlier attempt at a lincoln assassination painting, which i didnt post. anyways, the final piece is below these 15 pics.

2008-11-05T19:01:00.000-08:00

2008-11-05T19:00:00.000-08:00

2008-11-05T18:54:00.000-08:00

2008-11-05T18:53:00.001-08:00

Assassinationalism

2008-11-05T18:05:00.001-08:00

lets see,,,,what to say. This is the second in the series of three mini totems (theyre going to get bigger next series) . I wanted to explore the connection between assassination and nationalism. i'm really pleased with this painting, while with little big horn i "discovered" this totem thing, with assassinationalism i'm getting a much better hold of it, content, composition, paint, etc etc. maybe its clear i've been obsessed with caravaggio lately, my chopped off head is a tribute, as well as part of my own narrative.

I've been really working this idea over and over in my head lately...

that everything that has happened is still happening, and everything that will happen is still happening. the

re is no end, history is in perpetual motion in non physical space.....the main point here is that if nothing "ends" HISTORY OVERLAPS.

and i'm painting the "overlap",..... the converging history

anyway, the event that ignited this piece for me is the lincoln assassination, how it is like the jfk assassination, 9/11, Caesar's assassination, and the plans those kkk sympathizers had to assassinate obama. how brutus is to Caesar as john wilkes booth is to lincoln, and how shakespeare fits into the whole thing (rest assured he does, he does). hell, the assassination of jesus christ is the central mystery to the christianized-majority of the western world...like with the last two paintings, i'm finding that too much of my own explanation detracts. so.....that is all, but feel free to ask questions, later!

Little Big Horn

2008-10-19T18:44:00.000-07:00

here's the latest, finished today, while this is my 3rd custer painting officially, but the first of "the totems", historical events in the form of these floating conglomerations of heads and artifacts that examine our american ancestors and history. it is deeply personal as well as part of a historical context. to oversimplify, it examines custer's plan to run for president, and the atrocities committed against the native americans as part of fluffing up his resume.

I'm really happy with this piece because it fixes many of the problems of the XX series. it is more 3 dimensional, the content is more poignant but still ambiguous, the viewer can enter the painting, and still be confronted with overload........of course there are things i need to improve on the next one, but anyway, like colleen said, it is way more mature, and as david said, this is a huge step.

on to the next one!

Washington and The Squid

2008-10-06T20:35:00.000-07:00

so heres my weird pseudo history sci-fi genre painting, i'll write more about this later, but am too tired right now.

what if brake lights were green?

2008-10-02T19:33:00.000-07:00

um...i just watched the vice presidential debates....i'll just say "no comment"

anyway, some exciting things are happening in the studio (other than the creepy totem watching me paint every day)

another washington piece i hope to finish soon, and a new 3 painting series has begun

also, i had a very helpful meeting with artist laurel sparks, and i am now using matte and gloss mediums in my paints to make them thicker and give them more of a kick, i'm psyched, (the effect of being a "drawing major" for the first 21 years of my life).....also, i must experiment with varnishes.....perhaps on XX series.

anyways, the idea behind the new series is painting key scenes in american history...(again, trying to figure out what's happening now in the world, and in my head)

ha, also, i should mention my mom told me she thought the XX portraits about me and how i am being pulled every which way in my life.....nice.

implosion/explosion (it was weird)

2008-09-30T19:19:00.001-07:00

um.. i dont really know what to say other than today went other than i had planned, it was weird. have these great ideas for the beginnings of the next project (at least i think they're great) anyway, i set out to execute said fantastic ideas and this ended up happening. the top image is four paintings i started that turned into the rectangle below. its like some kind of totem. i didn't feel as if i was part of it's creation. it was weird. it feels like it was transported there, or burst out of the ground....i looked at it for a minute then got in my car a drove far away..... it was weird.

kids say things

2008-09-21T17:21:00.000-07:00

so heres a slightly more concise and refined statement.....(it's getting there)

By using human history as the context, my current artwork expands on the same themes and issues of my previous work. The work is greatly concerned with the way in which history is written and remembered. It is a way to rewrite history and reconstruct the social power structure that is embedded with these human events and figures. The interaction between the viewer and the paintings is a crucial piece to my artwork because I want to force the audience to question history. To do this I create large-scale paintings usually with intense colors, and a manipulation and/or distortion of ahistorical figure or image. A large variety of mark making is used to further take what is recognizable and make it unrecognizable. The work is always made in a series of multiples and plays with image association and the paring of conceptually paradoxical things, like divinity with physical illness, or heroism with villainy, to the point of making the viewer
uncomfortable at times, but compelled to keep looking upon the art.
My current work expands on the same themes because it now consciously includes myself in the dialogue with history and viewer. The work has become much more deeply personal because I am now describing myself and my own emotions and problems via the context of history. Each series of paintings, in this way, becomes a sort of pushing and pulling, microcosm/macrocosm blend; the artist is small and creates something huge in scale and concept (using history), while the huge artwork is just a representation of the small artist.

push it away, pull it close, ("XX" in the making)

2008-09-10T18:53:00.000-07:00

hello, heres a quick update of the UNFINISHED "XX"

this was taking this afternoon after i finished painting jackson there on the left for the day, this is with one day of painting on each canvas, now time for going back into each painting and bringing them all up together...

i already started the second wave of painting today, and i decided that these will be altered so much the final product will be different enough, that this post isn't tipping my hand too much....am i rambling?

sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeepy

2008-09-07T18:14:00.000-07:00

ok so i'm severely tired so this will be short....but i have to post this to get things clear in my head....snippets from a conversation with colleen....paintings so intensely personal the only way i can paint them is to step into the huge scope of history and american icons....so that they become malleable from a distance...these are the XX series.

i plan on not posting much more of this series until it is done, so this is just a little hint at where its going and what the fountain had to do with anything...

so until then

first things first....

2008-09-04T17:52:00.000-07:00

day 2 in the studio, coll and i got 5, 30" x 40" canvas's, and i painted "the fountain" on the 5 panels. Now, for those of you who are not up-to-date with paul endres jr triva, let me give you a brief rundown of "the fountain" junior year a providence college was my first independent study in drawing, during which prof. janecek taught me how to draw. yea, for a whole semester i used sumi black india ink and brush attached to a piece of bamboo. i wasn't allowed to hold the bamboo like a pencil, all the marks were made with my arm and my body.i went outside and painted fountain after fountain, sometimes not even looking at the drawing until i was done. eventually the fountain became internalized and i moved inside making 12 foot long versions of the fountain with increasingly detailed marks. the fountian is the exact moment in time i learn how to draw.

so here i am 3 years later, the fountain at pc has been changed due to landscaping needs.....the bamboo stick is in the trunk of my car, and i am facing 5 empty canvas' in a new place. how better to get acquainted with the new school, studio, and city than to start with the fountain.

it is a shrine, it is an eden, and it is now a place that exists only in my art.

home is where the heart is

2008-09-04T17:46:00.000-07:00

so heres day numero uno in the new studio... plenty of wall space, its still real clean here. its good because its such a big sized one, people can walk through it and yet it still feels private

the walls are closing in

2008-08-30T12:34:00.000-07:00

hia, heres a picture of my new studio space at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston......so much wall space......school starts on tuesday

number 5, natch. ha

more summer 08 influence

2008-08-24T13:14:00.000-07:00

have you ever been on a whale watch? they're incredible. I've really been obsessed with the book In The Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick, the Essex.
this sperm whale skeleton is at the Nantucket whaling museum, its about 45 feet long. the whale that rammed and sunk the Essex in the 19th century was approx. 85 feet long!!!!!??? ancient beasts...awesome

"Best of" Senior Show

2008-05-12T18:42:00.000-07:00

Alrighty, so here's a couple pictures from the "best of" show, which features a few pieces from each senior. Colleen and I decided to split the work up like so. I'm really happy with how this works. The size of the two side pieces isn't too distracting of dominant when the screen prints are in the square formation. Also, sorta by accident, Colleen arranged the middle pieces with a the greenish tinted on in the top left, and the blue one in the bottom right, reflective of the portraits on either side. pretty cool right? Also, it only seems fitting to show the two "old age" panels from the series, at the end of our time at pc.
Colleen's pieces were, "Genesis"(TL) "Merlot"(TR) "Revived"(BL) and "Toujour"(BR). These are really some great pieces and some of the strongest work I've seen from her. Backgrounds and foregrounds that diffuse into each other, utilizing the collages they are printed on and in, subtle color variations,...don't get me started on the edges of these pieces either, that seem effortlessly formed and levitate above their already floating surfaces, just great stuff.

San Miguel

2008-05-10T09:18:00.001-07:00

Here's the art club at San Miguel on our last day there.

Last day in the Gallery

2008-05-10T09:15:00.001-07:00

Here's a silly picture from the day we took the show down. It gives a good idea of scale.

updates

2008-05-08T07:32:00.000-07:00

hey everyone, err....anyone, I'm in the process of reposting some of the pictures from "XV" underneath. They are better quality photos of the paintings, so check em out, the colors are much better. also, i posted a link on the side of t he site there for Colleen's new website, for all your calligraphy needs, so check that out.
we're 1 week away from graduating now, I'm trying to come up with a goal to work towards in terms of art for the summer, lot of ideas swirling around, conceptually and technically. leaning towards smaller pieces, due to space and material restrictions i have. I don't want to limit the scope of anything though, i want to keep it "huge", if not physically huge, at least in meaning and relevance. Heres a list in an attempt to figure out what I'm thinking
president's portraits, American history, power structure "V" denying history, buildings like faces, trees living and speaking, the sky as a space, bridges as trust, love as being completely and utterly honest---which in turn is the pinnacle of communication because it denies the inner/outer distinction, the cleansing power of blue, wooden credit card(or wooden versions of plastic things---permanent vs. impermanent--mortality---can gods die? should gods die), giving, pyramids, howard zinn, text books, writing a "losers" version of history, which painting would provide the only appropriate medium because it does not depend on words, ...words..., what's natural? is nature natural?
I guess a lot of this is western civilization, me accepting it and denying it. I've been dabbling with a three-headed version of Plato-Aristotle-Socrates....I'm presently calling "DWC:XX" .....i'm trying to my place in history and a place in my painting.
I'll update more soon, when i sort this mess out.

gallery pics....

2008-04-29T06:53:00.000-07:00

V: Reception

2008-04-26T10:58:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone, here's a couple pics from the reception, it was a real good turnout and i think everyone enjoyed the show, so thanks to everyone who came. I was psyched to have people see my art on actual display in a gallery, as oppose to in the catacombs of Hunt-Cav or sloppy pictures. It seemed like 3 of the fastest hours of my life. the reilly gallery seems very well fitted for the size of my work, as well as a similar mood and tone. interestingly, i got a lot of the same questions from different people, such as, Why is the overall piece "XV" organized the way it is? (see below for power structure explanation) What are the panels painted on? (cardboard and collage) and whats the story with the nutritional facts (heart on a plate) piece?
I find the last question particularly interesting because while i enjoy the piece very much and the conception of it, it surprised me how many people seemed drawn to it. Perhaps because it is in the center of the back wall? maybe the multiple layers that reveal themselves over time? Maybe the recognizable font and numbers? in any event this reaction surprised and delighted me.
The other thing i really enjoyed was hearing the different perspectives of everyone, and which ones they were particularly drawn to. because i am so fascinated with this, i will record which reactions i can remember, while i still can, without being to revealing.
-Greg said I don't want to look at Pol Pot but i feel like i cant look away.
-Prof. Hogan enjoyed Churchill, as well as the reoccurring font motif
-my grandparents enjoyed churchill and also enjoyed gandhi.
-Corridan liked helen Keller
-sarah asked for hemingway for mantown, appropriately,
-jake told me on thursday he kept looking at the einstein in XV
-i forget who liked the egyptian boy the most, but someone did...i swear!
-melissa was creeped out by mickey...yes!
In general, many seemed drawn to the mark making in Lincoln and Pius XII and oprah, the forwardness of Churchill, the tear-like-marks of helen keller, and the physics people seemed to enjoy the first einstein a lot with all the equations. at least this is what i remember
I think the last thing i should mention is that someone wrote in the guest book, "Just Doing My Job" signed by, "G.A. Custer"
While this is kinda weird to write in someone's guest book i am sooooo happy they did, because really it just proves my point....that there are people out there that think Custer was a good guy, despite the awful awful things he did against the native americans. There are people who refuse to be shaken out of their comfort zone, but i'm happy knowing a "pushed a few buttons" of some people. Thats really the whole point of everything i've done, and the person who wrote this just confirms what i'm doing is relevant. the art i make is relevant, it was a good feeling. I'm not going to go into why custer is terrible again, but i think i'll end with what my dad wrote near the end of my guest book, "Custer had it coming". Thanks again to everyone who came, i'm on to paint something new